Diagnosis

Roseola is likely to be confounded with rubeola, scarlatina, urticaria, erythema. It is known from measles, in that it possesses no catarrhal symptoms; in that there is no relation between the febrile symptoms and the amount of eruption; in that there is no epidemic influence at work in its production; in that it is irregular in its dis­tribution, non-crescentric, not uniform, not dark-colored; but irregular, rosy, and often commencing in other parts than the face. Rubeola has a regular course, and is not partial in regard to the distribution of its accompanying eruption.

It makes very little difference if roseola be confounded with erythema, for the one is a red, the other is a rosy erythema.

In Scarlatina, the general aspect of the disease is grave; the fever is marked, the throat is bad, the tongue is peculiar; the skin harsh, dry; the rash general, punctiform, boiled-lobster-like. The progress is more uniform, and the disease can be traced to contagious or epidemic influence.

In Urticaria, the diagnosis is at once settled by the discovery or production of a wheal, and the peculiar stinging character of the local irritation, with the capricious character of the eruption.